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4 secrets to CEO productivity
Kristen McAlister Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThe executives you see on the cover of Forbes magazine didn't make it on a fluke. They made it there with a combination of hard work and productive habits. Working those extra hours certainly helps, but that alone isn't the key to success. The one thing most successful people have in common is their passion and productive lifestyle. CEOs get the same 24 hours you and I do, yet they can manage to complete all their work with time left over for their personal life and hobbies.
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Metals Thoughts: Don’t call it a comeback
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesIn what has likely been the most exciting week for metals since 2013, gold has traded up as much as 5.2 percent and right back down again — all over the course of three effective trading days.
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When is good service too good?
Anne Rose Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementIf you're in the service industry, whether travel or retail, you might pride yourself in offering excellent customer service as a selling advantage over your competitors. But is there a moment when good service becomes too good — unprofitable and unproductive?
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Metals Thoughts: Fat Tuesday
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesOver the last week, gold and silver are up $60 and $1.10, respectively, and have blown through most every technical level you could ask for. The next major resistance is both a major psych level and the long-term down trend that started in 2014.
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Why are so many retailers closing up shop? It’s not what you think
Danielle Manley RetailTechnology and e-commerce have transformed retail in the past decade. Many see e-commerce as the future, and experts have wondered if the brick-and-mortar retail location is becoming a thing of the past. However, it may not boil down to a simple fight between e-commerce and physical locations. The key to success seems to be the ability to transform your business to accommodate the changing customer base in the long term.
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Barcodes, QR codes or RFID tags? How companies select products
Dr. William Oliver Hedgepeth Distribution & WarehousingWhat happens with product information when a customer returns a product to the retail store or sends it into the reverse logistics supply chain of the online or face-to-face retail seller? A manufacturer of a product — such as a laptop computer or a new coffee maker — may have conducted their engineering analysis and later value analysis to make sure the laptop has been produced with the least expensive but reliable parts. But what about that information needed by the consumer on the product's use and safety?
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Keep your best people happy with these unique pay strategies
Mel Kleiman Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementIn the midst of an ever-tightening labor market, employee retention is a hot topic once again. Here are three ideas about how you can boost employee morale and retention with just a few tweaks to your existing pay policies. Let's face it, those policies were probably written years ago and have nothing to do with today's economics or workforce realities anyway.
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Metal Thoughts: Double rainbow
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesLast week saw oil, gold, long duration treasuries, the U.S. dollar and most U.S. equities all higher (show in Chart 2, below). As best I can tell, that hasn't happened in at least a year. All of those asset classes benefit in some way from lower interest rates, so much of it was due to weak GDP and perceived dovishness from the FOMC. You would not normally expect the U.S. dollar to rally as well, but much of that was driven by new levels of Bank of Japan (BoJ) aggression. Still, it's a bit of an anomaly.
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Tightening supply to sustain nonresidential construction growth
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsNot all the news about the economy is bad. Numbers coming in for the final month of 2015 show resurgence in activity in nonresidential construction after a drop in November. That trend is projected to continue into 2016, with the commercial sector likely to experience the strongest growth as vacancy rates and employment numbers continue to improve.
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Metals Thoughts: A new hope
Brad Yates RetailGold has broken through its heretofore stubborn resistance at the 100 DMA and also made a new high above its prior January highs of 1,113. The higher highs, higher lows, trend is still in place from the Dec. 3 lows.
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